Urban food strategies in Central and Eastern Europe: what's specific and what's at stake?

Integrating a larger set of instruments into Rural Development Programmes implied an increasing focus on monitoring and evaluation. Against the highly diversified experience with regard to implementation of policy instruments the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been set up by the EU Commission as a strategic and streamlined method of evaluating programmes’ impacts. Its indicator-based approach mainly reflects the concept of a linear, measure-based intervention logic that falls short of the true nature of RDP operation and impact capacity on rural changes. Besides the different phases of the policy process, i.e. policy design, delivery and evaluation, the regional context with its specific set of challenges and opportunities seems critical to the understanding and improvement of programme performance. In particular the role of local actors can hardly be grasped by quantitative indicators alone, but has to be addressed by assessing processes of social innovation. This shift in the evaluation focus underpins the need to take account of regional implementation specificities and processes of social innovation as decisive elements for programme performance.

Knowledge, Food and Place: a way of producing a way of knowing

The article examines the dynamics of knowledge in the valorisation of local food, drawing on the results from the CORASON project (A cognitive approach to rural sustainable development: the dynamics of expert and lay knowledge), funded by the EU under its Framework Programme 6. It is based on the analysis of several in-depth case studies on food relocalisation carried out in 10 European countries

Extending Citizenship Rights to Third Country Nationals: The Correlation between Migration and Integration: A Sample from South Europe. CEPS Working Document No. 175, October 2001

Various issues arise in the European context with respect to the boundaries of citizenship; one of the main questions is to what extent the division between the European Union citizens and third country nationals will increase, especially if "deepening" of the Union leads to more tightening of its external borders. This paper addresses the question of how far citizenship rights can be extended to third country migrants in the EU? The paper is divided into two parts; the first is a brief theoretical approach to questions about the parameters of citizenship in the EU. The second part focuses on Italy and Spain as new receiving states affected by North\South migration in the Mediterranean (their policies, people's attitudes, internal distribution of migrants, etc.) and compares their current position with the countries who have had a tradition of labour immigration since the1960s. It contrasts policy and practice vis-à-vis Maghrebi nationals in these two countries, although both are Mediterranean states in close geographical proximity to North Africa. The analysis suggests that the problems encountered by the different Mediterreanean EU members have, in some respects, to be treated on an individual basis. My empirical focus is mainly centred on labour immigration from the Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) and the public policy implications for the EU as a supranational Community rather than as a group of individual member states. I have chosen the Maghrebi immigrants not only because they constitute a high percentage of immigrants residing and working at present in the EU (about 2.5 million), but because their numbers have increased significantly (for both economic and political reasons). The empirical material largely relates to legally resident migrant workers in the EU and their families. The conclusion attempts to show why the EU cannot avoid dealing with this issue at least to some extent. The development of the EU's principles of the free movement of persons within the Community in order to work in another member state, equal treatment and social justice will be tested as they apply to the position of legally resident third country nationals

Culture, Utility or Social Systems?:Explaining the Cross-National Ties of Emigrants from Borsa, Romania

Emigrants from Borşa, Romania, display two quite distinct patterns of ties with their community of origin: migration to Italy is discernibly transnational, with a strong reliance on migrant networks; while migration to the UK is more individualistic, with emigrants shunning interaction with compatriots and retaining only weak ties to Borşa. We argue that prevalent theories of cross-national ties fail adequately to explain this divergence. Instead, we draw on systems theory to explain the discrepancy in terms of divergent conditions for societal inclusion. In Italy, incorporation into parallel, unofficial structures of work, welfare and accommodation encouraged a reliance on cultural criteria for maintaining social ties. In the UK, migrants were obliged to integrate into state-sponsored systems, encouraging the relinquishing of ethnic ties in favour of more strategic networking to facilitate societal inclusion

Making a star on the small screen: The case of Mina and RAI

© 2015 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. Anna Maria Quaini (née Mazzini), or Mina as she is more commonly known, is a prolific Italian pop singer who rose to fame in the late 1950s. She was particularly dominant from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, before her retirement from television appearances in 1974 and public performances in 1978. In particular, it was her relationship with and continued appearances on Radiotelevisione Italiana/Italian Radio-Television (RAI) programmes during this dominant period, which helped to cement her popularity with Italian audiences. This article examines Mina’s celebrity status through a detailed analysis of the construction of her star persona in a televisual context, taking as case studies her appearances on three RAI television series: Studio Uno/‘Studio One’ (1961-1962), Canzonissima 1968/‘Lots of Songs 1968' (1968-1969) and Teatro 10/‘Theatre 10' (1972). A comparative reading of her performances on these variety shows enables us to evaluate the extent to which RAI facilitated the construction of Mina’s star persona according to a specific set of cultural and ideological values. Ultimately, this article demonstrates the ways in which Mina’s evolving celebrity came to challenge the homogenizing mission of RAI during the period

2011: Celebrating 10 Years of YEPP!

This booklet includes a series of case studies of the YEPP Local Programme Sites and the young people together with studies that demonstrate the unique partnership aspect, as well as the international dimension of the Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme

Social Innovation in Service Delivery: New Partners and Approaches

[Excerpt] This report presents the findings of a research project exploring the involvement of new partners – in particular, the social partners, civil society and people in vulnerable situations – in social innovation. For the purposes of the research, ‘social innovation’ is defined as new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously resolve societal challenges, meet social needs and create new social relationships among the groups concerned. Social innovation can involve such aspects as new participation in decision-making, services affecting the social situation of specific target groups (provided commercially or not) and changes in social care systems. It is part of cultural development and societal change. The research was carried out at EU level – focusing especially on the role of the European Social Fund (ESF) in social innovation – and in six Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. It examined the innovation and social partnership culture in each country, and analysed to what extent national-level policies have been triggered by EU policy. The research also includes three case studies carried out in Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden, presenting initiatives that the social partners, or those in vulnerable situations, have been involved in designing and implementing. The objective of this study is to inform, with an evidence-based approach, the policy debate on social innovation, and contribute to a better understanding of effective and sustainable processes. The study also aims to explore how social innovation can be most effectively supported in different phases: from initiation, through consistent delivery of good quality services, to identification of good practice